Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Grandmaster Flashmob

No top international club DJ - not one with any credibility anyway - does requests. So it looks like I will never make it as a top international DJ, since all it took was a couple of people asking me to feature the new T-Mobile ad, and here it is.

In a way, what I think about it doesn't matter. In just four days, it has nearly 900,000 views on YouTube. It also has nearly 2,500 ratings - averaging the full five stars.

So it clearly works - people like it, and they're sharing it.

For the record, although I love to see agencies trying something different, I don't like this ad... purely because those improv everywhere / flashmob things give me the willies. It's just a personal thing. I also don't like horses or broccoli.

Hate the fake sponataneity of this Fisher King flash mob...dancers posing as uneasily as commuters in clothes that don't look like they are their own. You can sense them waiting or the director to shout "Action" It remimds me of those Sanatogen ads where a granny in a coat and scarf does a back flip. - the whole thing is knocked into a cocked hat by the closing titles of Slumdog Millionaire

This ad firstly is DIRECT rip from a brilliant stunt, which funnily enough was done in a STATION - so it is a terribly uncreative ad, but like a lot of good 21st Century TV ads steals from creativity - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo

Second, why I for me this ad works is that it is inclusive - meaning, if TV is going to have to compete with digital in any way for money (and especially in this economic climate) TV ads are going to have create a sense of community and interactivity, a sense of togetherness, which, I feel, this ad does really well - it captures the imagination through engagement.

However, it is still some other persons idea and not Saatchi & Saatchi's - let's hope this does not win anything creative because as good as it is, it is not original!

It makes you think about TMObile a lot more than those terrible old 'kids wandering around a soft focus urban utopia world' You know the bendy window dross that you probably thought was for vodafone or orange.

Felt there were too many dancers and not enough public, felt it went on too long, and thought it needed more of a twist, but there's a lot worse out there.

Have you seen the Vodafone dominos ad (that they had done before online a few years ago incidentally) or the o2 smiling garages ad. they are complete gash.

You only have to go to a research group to see that the general public are far more comfortable with stuff they'v seen before.Just before you throw yourself through the mirror and call them all cunts.Ooooh hark at me all sweary.

Here is this same old debate, and it's really running out of legs in my mind. T-Mobile have taken an idea and used it effectively for their ad.

Lastminute.com used a musical for their campaign.

That Improve Everywhere idea uses people taking off their trousers on the subway.

T Mobile uses dancers playing out a routine.

The common thread is that they are played out in public, and the camera captures reaction from passers by.

This was done by Jeremy Beadle years ago wasn't it? And Candid camera used to do similar pranks. Jackass have done public improv when Knoxville and Spike Jonze dress up as old women.

So what - every subsequent use of public reaction in a film becomes plagiarism?

Just because a technique or device has been used before, doesn't mean it can't be used again.

If that were the case, then there wouldn't be much else out there that hasn't been done before.

Did the same people that criticised this ad shout bloody murder at the screen when watching that scene in the Untouchables? The one where the pram rolls down the stairs? It was used in Battleship Potemkin, so surely Brian De Palma should be hanged drawn and quartered!

If T-Mobile took the exact piece of music and used the same moves, then there would be a case, but nobody has presented any evidence to suggest this.

You're clearly involved with this ad. But why are you bothering to justify it when it's got so many hits? You must have known that this ad was a blatant rip off of stuff done before - and your argument is about as lame as your choice of music. People doing a dance routine as one in a public space has been done before. But who cares other than frustrated adbloggers. Are you doing ads for consumers or awards juries? If it's the latter then I'm afraid judging by the comments here, unless Mr Silburn can swing a few favours then you're out of luck. But 900,000 hits is something to be proud of so well done for that.

saI started off as a sceptic. Here was a brand ripping off a whole load of YouTube content, from the Rick Astley flashmobs to the Filippino inmates dancing to Thriller. Then I saw the people watching, filming, texting and sharing it. This wasn't just a metaphor. They actually showed how 'Life Is For Sharing'. I hope there's a follow-up to capitalise on all the attention and goodwill they're building. (Can't believe I'm writing this about T-Mobile...)

12 21 Come on. This isn't a pastiche. It's just a direct copy.It hasn't added anything, given me any thing I haven't seen before and as far as I can tell doesn't have much to do with the product. They've changed the music (although I think you'll find someone else did that). If it's got to the point where changing the music of a piece of film counts as creativity you might as well hire an ipod shuffle to be CD.

MY GUESS IS THAT MOST OF THE NEGATIVITY IS FROM PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T EVER MADE ANYTHING THAT HAS BEEN SO WELL RECEIVED. DON'T GET ME WRONG, IT'S NOT THE GENIUS OF GUINNESS SURFER, BUT NOR IS IT THE DROSS OF BEROCCA? IT'S AN AD THAT PEOPLE ARE EMAILING TO EACH OTHER AND SEEM TO LIKE/FEEL PART OF.INSTEAD OF THE BELLY ACHE, GET WRITING SOME ADS THAT ARE BETTER AND USE THEM TO PROVE YOUR POINT.

Come on, this is pretty close to Berocca, really. A load of monkey shit that makes me fucking cringe. All those 'members of the public' with 'smiles' on their faces as they 'film' the load of old shitola. It's just fucking embarrassing. And the worst thing is the camel-cunt message at the end: Life's for sharing? Is there anything more fucking generic and limp as Tony Hart's cock? Nope. Can everyone involved just poo off to cockland? Oh, you already live there, infact you're all the mayors of cockland? Right. carry on then.

The CD of T Mobile's agency is the bloke who thought it was Ok to stick the words 'Life on the Playstation' on the end of a Big Train sketch. I wouldn't have thought he's losing any sleep over the rip. Probably quite pleased at the reaction.

"t-mobile is now all about singing and dancing innit? it's a bit weird. and it goes on a bit. it's for for the teenagers and stuff. i want a proper mobile phone company. not high school musical crap at a station. what's it all about? why don't they talk about coverage and price? show me an iphone and tell me i can get it cheap

The level we're discussing it on i.e. it's providing opportunities to live the brand idea rather than a didactic narrative explaining it is a load of adland toss. it's a self indulgent, over complicated bag of arse.

it wasn't real or live or spontaneous or a surprise to anyone so it was pointless, it might as well have been 400 am dram'ers dancing badly to a shit music medley in a village hall. why was it set in a train station if it was faked? it was sanitized and soul less, even the cutaways looked fake, it was done 100% for the cameras, not as an ambient piece..which makes it utterly utterly pointless. shame because their carlsberg wives was genius

Horses are not threat, even if the evolve to walk on just two legs. Their brains are really quite weak and their legs snap easily.

But to return to the topic, I don't like the T-mobile ad. I just didn't find it very interesting. Feels very much like the client said "I want to own the break with a stunt, just like Honda. In fact, we've booked the media and it's got to run in a fortnight."

It is not hard to get a load of youtube views if you have a banner on the homepage.

There is a 'symphony orchestra' banner on the homepage and that video has had nearly 900,000 views too. Did that great a lot of 'noise' online? Possibly in orchestra circles it was huge - I have no idea though.

Back to the T-Mobile ad. I thought flash mobs were about a spontaneous moment where people come together. This looks like a lot of professional dancers with some members of the public in a choreographed routine. It smacks of 'hey - let's create a flashmob in controlled conditions'.

I thought the Sony Bravia ad with the bubbles captured a brand creating a 'moment' much better than this.

I hate this ad, but five years ago i may have liked it. Flash mobs are so old news. typical of a sucker brand like T Mobile to jump on the lots of people having fun bandwagon, i'm surprised they are not all holding their t mobile video phones in the air. Stop the stunts! they are getting beyond done.

A truly extraordinary, weirdly bitter set of reactions. Think about the target for this ad. It's not about reflecting the very latest trend. It's about creating a simple, feel-good moment for a mainstream market. And it does that spectacularly well. T-Mobile aren't chasing a deeply cool positioning. They're trying to make a straightforward point about a universal truth (albeit a particularly bland one). It's not a work of genius, it's not hip, but it is good. The form is generic enough for plagiarism to be a total non-issue here. Cultural influence isn't plagiarism in the way that nicking an application directly from a small tech company is.

I so agree that flash mobs are creepy in a nasty excluding kind of way. This is a really, really horrid ad. It's so disgustingly phoney and then completely unrelated to the thought that attempts to tie it to the product. So what that the man in the street likes it. As Sid Vicious said: I've met the man in the street and he's a cunt.

It is a bit old hat, but tbh it is STILL very now. I didn't like it at first but I realise I could still watch it over and over + it has used the power of online (which is the very point I suppose). Compare that to the VW kung fu ad which is 10 years old a la Matrix and very boring.

The 'Unexpected Performance' thing is so cringeworthy in it's execution though 10.13

T-mobile aren't afraid to take take whats been done and recycle it, check out what they did in germany with paul potts appearance on uk got talent. And this got great reviews here, everyone thought t-mobile was great and they also now think paul potts is great. this is what they are doing with their brand.

i love being in advertising. We sit around thinking we know best then someone does something that the public loves (and they blatently do by the number of hits and comments on youtube) and we all think its shit just because we didn't so it ourselves. So what if flashmobs are old news, no-one has done it in an ad before. And i don't remember the improve peeps doing it on that scale. I applaud those involved. I loved it. My kids loved it. My friends in the real world love it. The only people that dont seem to be everyone on this blog.

what is engagement? a couple of hundred punters in Liverpool St taking snaps of it and telling their mates? no.

engagement is producing something good so it gets lots of hits on You Tube. Kind of a like a great TV ad does – still. So really the jobs still same – do something good enough that people want to watch it. That's the definition of engagement. Not 'something other than TV'.

It isn't, however, that good an ad as there are around 5 or 6 flash mob ads at the mo. All pretty much the same.

I have a mental image of the majority of you lot as the ever so clever art students sitting in the canteen, smoking roll-ups, and holding forth on points that only your equally dull mates sitting opposite give a shit.

Scamps Ad of the year, your beloved VW ad is a rip off, there are very few ads that aren't, at the very least, 'inspired' by a recent cultural moment.

The vast majority of you guys are out of ideas and out of time.

The quicker this recession takes some of your agencies under the better.

provato, and everyone, I think we all know that nothing comes from nowhere. The real question should be... is it good? Yes, partly that is determined by how fresh it feels - better to use a little-known reference, or if a well-known one, change it a lot - but partly it's also how well it's done, how on-brand it is, etc.

Faris is right. He is the only one that makes a proper argument in terms of who we create ads for. I don't care if its been done. No, really adwads, I don't. Because improv everywhere got it from a small group of people in San Fran who started flash mobbing, but you adwads seem to choose to start your debate at certain periods in time that suit you-IE improve everywhere are okay because they got more exposure. I enjoyed the T mobile ad. And i bet you guys did too and hated that you smiled so you had to find something to pan it. Yes it's been done. So?I am not going to reasses my enjoyment because a load of ad insiders are outraged. People do cover songs all the time. Come on bitches let your incestuous anger flow like a friggin set of south american rapids. idiots.

10.00 what's an adwad? speak english! No one is saying the ad wasn't enjoyable. It's just been done a lot as an idea over the past year. As someone pointed out, it's because the You Tube clip has been around a year or two and so predictably quite a few agencies have been scrambling to do it and all the stuff's ended up coming out at the same time. still them's the breaks, and it the bottom line is it still ain't that original.For example, why didn't we discuss the Lastminute.com ad that came out three months ago and is the same idea. At least those guys got there first. I think.Scamp - put some stuff up that is at least stimulating will yer?

the lastminute.com ad is a flashmob, yes. I apologise for my oversight when i suggested no ads had used a flashmob.

The difference i feel between the two though, is that the t-mobile one wasn't a performance that people watched with no participation, but a performance people were encouraged to join in with.

The 'idea' (we are all about ideas still?) isn't 'flashmobbing' but seems to be 'life is for sharing', hence the public joining in.

So flashmobbing seems to be just a form of execution. Like 'surrealism' or 'animation' etc... There's a new claymation spot out for Lynx, with the cavemen. Levi's did it with Mr Boombastic 15 years ago. Are they robbing bastards? Or is it just a similar form of execution with a completely different idea?

flash mobbing is the idea. and you don't make it different from another flash mob idea by crowbaring in something about sharing. come on, we've all done it. and this is a classic case. to compare it to using an style of animation is dumb.

What next? a mime flash mob idea? an acrobat one? all different ideas clearly....!

I think it's pretty cool actually. There are hardly any 'original' ideas in advertising anyway, and even if the whole flashmob thing has been done before, it's never been done half as good as this t-mobile ad.

This ad made me feel really happy. The bullying and bitterness of some of these comments made me feel sad.

think you're missing the point - it's not a 'bad' ad it's just one of quite a few flash mob ideas around at the mo. think the neg comments have been aimed at people who don't think, bizarrely, think this is an issue.

I really hope that no clients are reading this comment board, Scamp. It will only confirm their already-deeply-held suspicions that most adwads (love that word!) are award-obsessed solipsists who don't give a f*ck about their business.

this is so old, if you gonna borrow (nick) an idea at least make it one loads of people havnt seen.And its nothing compared to the freestyle freezes - their was a great one done at waterloo and grand central stations.

5.56 No doubt you're involved in this ad somehow with comments like that. You should do voiceovers.

PS this is an ad creative blog (mainly) and so we do discuss what is award-worthy, surprise, surprise. much as it draws criticism from overly-precious clients, agency people involved and apologists for mediocrity.

This idea was done by Lastminute.com already the back end of last year. and, as someone has pointed the first flash mob idea (the freeze) was done about 3 years ago now. It's been done well for T-Mobile, but it's tired as a concept.

Why don't we talk about the Coldplay video instead? Absolute brilliance, originality, and 3.5 million hits so far....

your comment is utter garbage. people who care about the (creative) business will laud the work that is truly great. and criticize the work that isn't. it's people who laud 'ok' work who don't care about the business.

sony 'balls' for example - worldwide impact, not done before (in an ad), beautifully linked to the product so great ad. and worthy of a lot of praise.

8.35 fine, but my issue isn't whether something is pure originality - balls was I think better than the original concept as it had a coherent message, was shot beautifully, music was perfect, etc.

Rabbits I never liked anyway, and there's your answer I think - if it's great and done brilliantly who cares if it's ripped. (except maybe the originator!). Cog is another example. Morally it probably is wrong, but the counter argument is most artists don't get a day or so to come to a solution.

The nightmare comes when everyone in the ad business is doing the same thing. then we have to criticize the repetition. why wouldn't you? flash mobbing, as opposed to an obscure feature on Letterman, is surely too obvious a thing to use? it's been around for donkey's. It's tired. That's my issue. I don't care how well its done.

The 'creatives don't give a fuck about the business' thing is a damaging cliche (much like 'clients don't give a fuck about ideas') and meaningless to me. I believe doing a great award winning ad (notice the 'great') is brilliant for a client's business. I also believe most creatives try to make whatever they do actually work like a bastard by making the idea as strong as possible. Why wouldn't you? Everyone wants to be popular. Some don't tho, and I hold them in the same regard as you.

A lot of planners, bizarrely, seem to think only they care about the ad working.

FROM VICE:Flashmobbers: The ugly, twee, silly little children of social disobedience.

If your journey home last Friday involved traversing Liverpool Street station, then you were shit outta luck. The station was forced to close for an hour and a half, from 7pm, due to 100 smug, self-indulgent idiots giving thousands and thousands of pounds of free advertising to T-Mobile by recreating one of their adverts. What a whimsical generation we are. And oh great, I just did a Facebook events search for ‘flash mob’ and over 500 results came up. I guess it doesn’t matter to anyone that they were invented by some guy at Harper’s Magazine to make fun of people’s need to be in on the next big thing OR that they are no longer shocking to ANYONE (Even my 95 year old Great Aunt knows what they are)